Understudy, Unison, Unit
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day one hundred and fifty-eight: ABCs #21 Rachel stands at the back of the auditorium, watching the rest of the club perform at Invitanionals, without her.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a second cycle, and then a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh cycle. Now here's cycle 8!_

_Walking through a bookstore back in december, I saw the series of books by Sue Grafton that go "A is for...," "B is for...," etc, and I got the idea for this set. It will spread over the end of cycle 6, and carry through cycles 7 and 8, to be posted on alternating days. [And by the time we reach the end, Glee will be a week away!!] What I did is I found three words for each letter that would have some significance to Glee, and I built a plot around it. You with me? Okay, here we go..._  
_**21 of 26:** U is for..._

* * *

**"Understudy, Unison, Unit"  
Rachel**

She debated going or not. She wasn't one of them anymore, by her choice. She had moved on, she was going to have a leading role… it was all she'd ever wanted, so she should have been able to walk off in satisfaction, with closure. But then in a heartbeat, she was walking down the halls of McKinley.

She didn't want them to see her… they probably didn't want to see her either, after she'd come back to them one minute, only to leave them again the next. What else could they expect from her, after how she'd been… manipulated as she was? No… she'd stay in the back and she'd watch. She'd watch that tiny blonde woman who smelled like her old babysitter, Mrs. Butler, go and take her spotlight if she wanted it.

So she went, and she sat in the back, waiting to see just what would happen now. The lights came on, shining on her eleven former co-members and their new star… rusty star, shaking off that rust, trying to shine again.

But it was supposed to be her.

She was the one who should be up there. She could hear Sue Sylvester's voice in her head, saying… she had everything she'd always wanted. It sure seemed that way. Only she could hear Finn's voice, too. They were her friends. Those were her friends up there, backing up the rusty star, and all she wanted was to be up there with them.

Her fathers, both of them, had been telling her all her life that there would be times when she'd realize she'd made a mistake, and she'd hate how it made her feel to take that step but in the end it was the only way to get past it. She'd never known it so well as in that moment.

Watching them, on that stage though, she knew she wanted to be with them bad enough that it'd be worth the crawl. Maybe it wasn't her fault she was so miserable in the "Cabaret" group. She was talented, she could do it, so she knew that wasn't the problem.

No, it was that man… her old Glee director and once again tormenter, Sandy Ryerson. They had never seen eye to eye, the two of them. But then he was as much of a diva as she was, so why should it surprise her in any way?

Only it was more than that, and she knew that, too. It wasn't just how Mr. Ryerson acted, it was that he was Mr. Ryerson, or in a clearer sense of the word, he wasn't Mr. Schuester. And all around her she didn't see the people with which she had started to bond. Even the jocks and the cheerleaders… it wasn't common for them to share an environment and be glad for it, but… in that room they had found something that made them special, something they shared with one another and no one else, because maybe they were the only ones who could understand it.

She continued to stare as they finished their first number and they stood there, taking in the applause given by their audience. She couldn't wait, wouldn't… she belonged with them and she wasn't going to wait. She just had to suck it up and go, just like her fathers had said.

Her legs shook for a second, but she got moving.

How was she going to get them to see that she did honestly and truly wanted back in, and she was ready to be among them in whatever way they'd have her? And the show… it was probably too late for that one, wasn't it? April Rhodes was there, it was a number built for twelve, she'd just be throwing everything off.

As she was walking toward the room though, the pieces started to fall into place. She saw the pink cowgirl walking out, looking… liberated, thoughtful, hopeful… why was she leaving, they had more to do, it wasn't over…

She reached the room and she could hear Mr. Schuester telling the others that April had left Glee Club, and the show would have to end early. Right there she knew this was her chance. The universe was smiling down on her, giving her a shot. She wouldn't waste it.

THE END


End file.
